Mitt Romney was a failed Republican candidate because of various reasons but during his campaign, an interesting reality of how democracy works emerged. And as Sir Winston Churchill once said, "Many forms of government have been tried and will be tried in this world of sin and woe. No one pretends that democracy is perfect or all wise. Indeed, it has been said that democracy is the worst form of government, except for all the others that have been tried from time to time."
True. Democracy has many flaws and it is very bad when it is misused. And it has clear vulnerabilities.
In 2012, Republican Presidential candidate Mitt Romney's failing chances of getting elected got worse in the middle of the presidential election season when his remarks at a private fundraiser about the truth of the relationship between certain voters and the government was leaked. He spoke the truth but the truth he spoke, in large part, wrecked his campaign because it hurt the sentiments of the masses whose relationship with the government was exposed. In democracy, votes matter. And Romney's remarks did not win him more votes.
Romney said, "There are 47 percent of the people who will vote for the president no matter what. All right, there are 47 percent who are with [Barack Obama], who are dependent upon government, who believe that they are victims, who believe that government has a responsibility to care for them, who believe that they are entitled to health care, to food, to housing, to you name it. That that’s an entitlement. And the government should give it to them. And they will vote for this president no matter what. And I mean, the president starts off with 48, 49, 48—he starts off with a huge number. These are people who pay no income tax. Forty-seven percent of Americans pay no income tax. So our message of low taxes doesn’t connect. And he’ll be out there talking about tax cuts for the rich. I mean that’s what they sell every four years. And so my job is not to worry about those people—I’ll never convince them that they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives. What I have to do is convince the 5 to 10 percent in the center that are independents that are thoughtful, that look at voting one way or the other depending upon in some cases emotion, whether they like the guy or not, what it looks like. I mean, when you ask those people…we do all these polls—I find it amazing—we poll all these people, see where you stand on the polls, but 45 percent of the people will go with a Republican…"
Basically, Romney observed that to the roughly 47% of Americans who do not pay any income tax, his campaign about not raising taxes would really not matter because for them, high or low income tax rates make no difference!
What drove the liberals and Democrats nuts was what he said about the 47% of people in America who are dependent upon the government for part or all of their livelihood - food, shelter, education and clothing. He was right; no matter what he campaigned on, there was a solid group of people who would ALWAYS vote for Obama because Obama represented the system that allowed them to continue depending on the government and the government, in turn, depended on them for votes. Yes, votes really matter in politics.
Romney calls these folks "victims" of the government because they almost entirely depend on the government for livelihood and the government knows when to attract their attention as if it cares for them when, in reality, it uses them to get elected.
Last week, Zoram Exodus Movement leader K.Sapdanga noted at a public meeting that in next year's election, we will have to choose
- Whether we want to be self-sufficient or be content with freebies from the government.
- Whether we want more of the same or a new path.
- Whether we want to live poor but relaxed or rich and hardworking.
- Whether we want a strong collective and accountable leadership or another autocratic rule that people don't even dare to question, much less change.
In democracy, it is not always the competent that have the upper hand. Often, it is the lowlifes that rule. Unfortunately, the system often allows for lovers of power and lovers-of-themselves to win elections and voters often fail to recognise the perpetual entrapment. And every five years, we keep repeating the same mistake.
This destructive system of governance can only end when we the people, the voters, wake up and demand accountability and competent leadership that truly works to lift us out of dependency and into self-sufficiency.
According to political and judicial analyst Andrew Napolitano, "Dependency breeds a sense of complacency and entitlement and fosters a government that -- in order to stay in power -- will further that dependency. Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton agreed on little publicly, but they did agree that when the public treasury becomes a public trough and the voters recognize that, they will send to the government only those who promise them a bigger piece of the government pie."
This is how democracy usually works, unfortunately. But we can elect people who will not simply promise a bigger share of the government pie next year but those who will lift us out of the economic mud and mire we are in.
Guess what government programs have not lifted the masses out of poverty? The New Land Use Policy. And guess which party is trying to out-do the Congress government's multi-million dollar freebie program? None other than the MNF. (Where the Congress promised Rs.1 lakh, the MNF promised Rs.3 lakhs!)
We may not have the knights in shining armour at the moment but the Congress and MNF party, in their present form, are definitely not the answer to Mizoram's problems. It will be a real uphill battle for reformers but we, the people, can and should hope for self-sufficiency and not be content with freebies from the government that only last five years. We should want no more of the same, we should chart a new path or perish. Government freebies and money-making programs may give us temporary calm but if we continue this path, we will live in perpetual debt and poverty. Only hardwork will make us a wealthy society.
Perhaps our biggest problem is the way our party system works - rule of the few (or one!). We need a strong collective, accountable and democractic leadership in every party and definitely in the government. We need to reject autocratic rule. Remember, representatives of the majority of the Mizo people resolved to abolish autocratic rule way back in 1952 and actually had it abolised through legislation two years later. We cannot go back to a system of governance where one man rules over many and the people have no say.
